A Chance Encounter Novel – My d-mn first love warned me to abort the baby, and he has a fiancée. “I’m pregnant.” I said happily to the man in front of me. His hand slammed against the wall next to my head, “If this is true, you have to have an abortion.” “I will keep the baby.” I looked straight into his cold eyes. “But if you don’t want to be a father, then you don’t have to be one.” “I suggest you have an abortion, Sofia, but if you’re stupid enough not to do it, you’d better make sure no one connects me to you or the child.” He walked out. I will definitely give birth to the baby.
SOPHIA “I’m pregnant.” I found out this morning and was planning to tell him. Then I found out he’s in a relationship with another woman, whom he’s now engaged to. He cuts across the small space and pins me against the wall, his hand slamming against the wall next to my head “If this is true, you’re getting an abortion,” he says slowly. “Like h-ll,” I spit. “My body, my baby.” “Sophia, do. Not. F-ck. With. Me.” He grabs ahold of my ponytail and yanks my head back, so I’m forced to look into his eyes. I flinch at the bite of pain but refuse to cower to him. “I’ve worked too hard for your terrible hip to f-ck up my plans.” “I’m keeping the baby,” I repeat, looking him right in his cold gaze. “But if you don’t want to be the father, then you don’t have to be.” Growing up, my dad was like a broken record, telling me how he wanted my mom to have an abortion. As far back as I can remember, I’ve felt like a mistake and I refuse to let this baby growing in me ever feel the same way. “F-ck!” he booms, punching his fist through the wall. The drywall crumbles on impact. He pulls back, but his eyes never leave mine.
“I came here looking to get laid, but you just had to go and complicate bad things.” He closes his eyes and his fingers drag through his hair, tugging on the ends in frustration. When he reopens them, his features are cold, calculated. “You tell anyone, and I mean anyone, about this baby, and I’ll destroy you and your family. That secretarial position your mom just got at Klein and Eisenhower—my father plays golf with them. One word from me that she’s a recovering addict and she’ll be unemployed.” My body stiffens at his threat. My mom is finally at a job that makes her happy. A job that doesn’t involve her flinging fried food. How the h-ll does he know about that? I never told him… That must mean he looked into me—into my family. The thought makes my stomach roil. “And your uncle Oliver who just got that promotion at the bank… One call and he’ll be gone.” Oh my God… Fear crawls up my esophagus, burning like acid. Freeman steps toward me and grabs my chin, jerking my face up to look at him. “If anyone ever finds out we were together, that I share DNA with that baby, I will f-cking destroy you. I’ll have nothing left to lose and I will come after you.
And after I’m done doing that, I will take great pleasure in ripping that baby from your arms, so you never see it again. My family has connections everywhere, and I will use every single one in my power to see to it that if my life implodes, yours does too. It’s best you remember that.” He backs up and pulls a couple hundred-dollar bills from his money clip and drops them on the floor in front of me. “I suggest you get that abortion, Sophia, but if you’re stupid and don’t, you better make d-mn sure no one ever links me to you or that baby.” He walks out, and I run to the closest trash can, vomiting everything in my stomach. Then I vomit once more. Once I’m almost positive my stomach is empty, I go back out to the bar. My hands are shaking and I’m lightheaded, but I’m still in the middle of my shift. “Miss, I need another beer,” a guy calls out. “Miss.” “I heard you,” I snap, then quickly smile, not wanting to piss him off. I need the money now more than ever.
The rest of the night goes by in a blur, and when the club is closed and the bar is clean, I head home. I’m exhausted and my heart is aching. All I want to do is shower the night off and get some sleep. But when I walk inside and find my mom sitting on the couch with a pink and white box in her hand, I know I won’t be doing either of those things yet. “Tell me this isn’t yours,” she says, tossing it at me. “Tell me you didn’t just destroy your entire future!” She stands and grabs a smoking from the pack, pushes it between her wrinkled lips, and lights it. “It’s mine,” I admit. “And the father?” “He’s dead.” The lie flows from my lips easily, as I recall Freeman’s threats. Her brows rise in confusion. “Dead?” “Dead,” I repeat. Dead to me, dead to the baby growing in me, and to the world, he will always be known as an unnamed man who’s dead. – “You going to have an abortion?” “No.” It was never a thought in my mind. Like my dad made sure to tell me he wanted my mom to have an abortion, my mom has told me a million times she considered it but couldn’t do it. If she had, if she had listened to my dad, I wouldn’t be here. “You should,” she says, shocking the h-ll out of me.
“You didn’t.” She sighs. “I could never regret having you. I love you, but that doesn’t change the fact that life’s a mean, cruel bad woman, who’ll eat you up and spit you out. It hasn’t been easy raising you. I wasn’t able to give you a fourth of the terrible thing I wish I were.” “But you loved me,” I rasp. Isn’t love enough? “Love doesn’t pay for formula or diapers or clothes or an education,” she says, answering my unspoken question. She hates that she can’t afford to help me with college, that even though I had the GPA and scores to go to a good school, because we can’t pay for that, I’m instead going to a local community college, while my half-sister, my dad’s other daughter, is going to Stanford because my dad can afford to pay for it. “I’m keeping the baby,” I tell her. “I’ll figure it out.” She sighs in frustration. “We can barely afford to keep this roof over our heads.” Tears well in her eyes. “Please, Sophia. Don’t let one mistake ruin your entire future. I want more for you than this life.” My heart both hurts and swells at her words. We’ve never been close. Not like I imagine a mother and daughter should be. She’s been stressed and struggling for as far back as I can remember.
But it warms my heart that despite that, she still cares about me and my future. She wouldn’t kick me out on the streets with a baby in my belly, but that doesn’t mean I should put this on her. This is my problem. And I’m going to need to deal with it on my own. I take a shower, remaining under the hot water until it turns cold, then throw on a pair of cotton shorts and a tank top. It’s hot tonight and we don’t have working air conditioning. When I’m putting my phone to charge, a text comes in from my cousin and best friend, Naomi: Miss you, love you, need you. I glance at the time on my phone. It’s four in the morning here in California, so it’s seven there. Me: Everything okay? My phone rings and I hit answer. “What’s wrong?” “Dante said he’d help me out.” Dante is her boss, and she’s mentioned on several occasions how close they are. From the way she speaks about him, I almost think she has a thing for him, but she swears they’re just friends—which raises the question as to why she’s friends with her very much older boss. “So, what, he’ll be your sugar daddy?” We both laugh.
“No, he said I can…work the stage.” She’s going to strip? She said they make more money, but Jacob wouldn’t let her do it. “It won’t be enough, but I’ll find a roommate.” “I’m pregnant,” I blurt out. “What?” She shrieks. “How?” “Well, when a man and a woman—” “Bad woman, now is not the time for jokes.” “I know.” I sigh. “But if I don’t joke, I’ll cry.” “Is it the guy you mentioned you’ve been seeing? What’s his name?” “No, he’s dead.” We’re both silent for a moment while I wait for Naomi to call me out on my lie. She knows me better than I know myself, and she knows d-mn well if the guy I was dating died, I would’ve told her. “Dead?” “Yeah, dead.” “Okay then. He’s dead.” I exhale in relief, thankful she’s going along with the lie so easily. I’m not sure I could continue the lie if she questioned me. “Your mom know about the baby?” “Yeah.” “Oh boy. How’d she take it?” Naomi’s mom and mine are sisters. But while my mom struggled, Naomi’s mom did things the right way—went to college, found a wealthy man to marry, bought a home in a nice area, and then had Naomi.
My mom isn’t jealous of my aunt Vicky—she’s more envious, if anything. And any time she talks about my future, she always tells me she wants me to be like her sister—get out of this trailer park and make a life for myself. “Not good. I know she’ll help me, but I can’t let her do that. She’s finally working at a job she likes and pays well, and I’m grown up. I can’t put her through this… But I don’t have anywhere to go… And bartending isn’t going to pay for a baby. Naomi, maybe I’m in over my head here. Maybe I should have an abortion,” I choke out, hating myself for even thinking that. I’m not against abortion by any means. Every woman has the right to do what she wants to her own body, but could I live with that choice? We’re both quiet for a moment before she says, “Move here.” “What?” “Move here. I need a roommate and you need a place to live.”
“Did you not hear I’m pregnant?” “Yeah, I did. We’ll figure it out together.” I think about my options for a moment, but the fact is, if I stay here, I risk running into Freeman, and while I’d like to believe he’s not capable of acting on his threats, my gut tells me he is. Then there’s my mom—I can’t put her in a position where she feels she’s obligated to help me raise my baby. But if I leave, I’ll be across the country, away from Freeman, and my mom will be off the hook. She deserves to finally live her life for herself. She gave me eighteen years. It’s not fair to put her through another eighteen.